Psalm 23:2,3

He makes me lie down in green pastures,

he leads me beside quiet waters,

  he refreshes my soul.

He guides me along the right paths

    for his name’s sake.

Jesus claims he is our “good shepherd” and so this week we are pondering the 23rd Psalm about the good shepherd.  Yesterday we looked at the context.  Our context is right now, not tomorrow.  The psalm is actually talking about how we can depend on the Lord to be present today, not just in the future or in heaven.  His presence in my trials of today means that in the circumstances I face there is food and peace, green pastures and quiet waters, that restores my soul.  So how does that happen?  What are the verbs that are active in the present context?

The Lord “makes me lie down.”  As an independent American, a product of the baby boomer generation when women are empowered and demonstrate for gender equality, the word “make” certainly causes me to stop and think.  Faith by its very nature is the act of me submitting my will to a higher power, to the Lord.  Faith is not automatic and often involves internal wrestling with my natural tendencies.  I don’t necessarily want to forgive that person who has hurt me or mine.  When the kids were learning to drive they loved to look over my shoulder and remind me when I had the peddle to the medal.  If love and forgiveness were easy we would not have wars around the world, starvation and inequality.  The choice to follow the kingdom of heaven is a choice to submit to the leadership of the Lord.  I would prefer to say “he enables me to lie down” but in truth sometimes “he makes me lie down” and I don’t always understand his wisdom.

By similar reasoning, the Lord leads me.  I would not choose widowhood or disease but in the midst of the trials I walk through during life, I believe he mediates and protects me from the full power of evil.  He is there leading me on a path only he can see to a destination only he knows is best.  Again, my faith is stretched and I grow in this process but indeed, sometimes I have growing pains.

The Lord “refreshes” my soul.  Anger hurts and weighs me down as much as too many sweets.  When I am able to turn over to him my burdens, my soul is refreshed.  When I force myself to focus on his word rather than my worries, my soul is refreshed.  When I get outside and see his works, my soul is refreshed.  Community love and laughter refreshes my soul.  I love music.  The Lord refreshes me better than coffee that stimulates.

The Lord guides my feet for his glory, not my glory.  I need guidance and not just for taxes at this time of the year.  I need guidance in dealing with my kids.  I need more than medical guidance for aging.  I pray the Lord gets the glory.

So perhaps as you reflect today you may sense the tension of submitting your will or perhaps a fogginess in his leading or a weariness in your souls that needs refreshing or you just need guidance.  The Lord can meet all of us as we face our challenges.  I would agree that the Lord is a “good shepherd.”

It is hard to think of Jesus saying he is “the good shepherd” in the gospel of John without thinking of Psalm 23 written by King David.  It is so familiar to many that the words roll off the tongue and perhaps our mind races to God’s promise to be with us as we walk through the valley of death or perhaps to the final banquet in the presence of our enemies.  I’d like to tackle the psalm again this week.  I am stepping into widowhood and you are stepping into your challenge but that must not change the meaning of the psalm.  Let’s not treat it as a panacea to make us feel good but see if we can apply it to our situation today.

The first three verses seem to me to speak to my context.  I am his sheep and one of a universal believers in a huge herd.  The shepherd is opening the gate of today and calling me out to life.

Psalm 23. A psalm of David.

¹ The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.

²  He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,

³ he refreshes my soul.

The first challenge for me is to remember that God is my shepherd — not my husband, not my finances, not my health and not my friends.  The Lord is the “good” shepherd as we looked at yesterday and it is only as I look at him that this makes sense.  Widowhood is not a punishment nor any other challenge I face.  Life is a blessing the Lord is leading me into today.  I am not alone and I am not abandoned no matter how much my emotions try to convince I am.  The Lord is there leading me.

We lived with pastoralists in Kenya and sheep were a constant reality.  We joke about them being stupid but I noted that as the sheep walked along, their heads were often looking down for grass, blindly following the heels of the guy in front.  A group of three walked right in front of a speeding minibus I was riding to town one day.  I heard the clunk, clunk, clunk as we rolled over them and smelled their death the rest of the way.  They followed the wrong leader, didn’t keep their heads up and never saw what hit them.  I must remember to keep my eyes on the Lord and remember only he is good.

In the middle of the desert those sheep thrived and grew great big bulbous tails with fat that was used to heal wounds.  Our friend said he fell out of a tree, cracking his skull and the elders took a sheep and took part of his tail to pad the wound and heal my friend.  Perhaps it is true.  Wherever I am, there is green or nutritious pasture.  The Lord does lead me to green pastures but I am in green pastures right now and he is here to feed my soul.  Contentment is not just something for heaven or tomorrow but is available today.  I can find peace today and lay down, rest knowing the Lord is leading me.  That is the truth of my context.

Often my life looks like a raging storm at sea.  How will I make it through taxes this year?  When will survivor benefits kick in?  I love the picture of the young man standing at the helm of a boat obviously tossed by the waves but Jesus is standing over his shoulder and pointing the way.  Psalm 23 says that the Lord leads me beside still waters.  I need to remember that he only need say, “Be still,” and the storm that scares me so much will calm to still waters.  It’s a promise I can cling to when the skies are dark.

I love the end of these first three verses that informs my context.  Not only is the Lord my good shepherd, providing what I need for now, nourishing me in my situation, and calming my storms, the Lord is also “restoring my soul.”  I need not just exist and stay alive but there is something about today that is meant by the Lord to be restoration.  

I am challenged to look at the pastures the Lord is leading me into today and to ask him to open my eyes to see the gift of restoration he is providing.  Lord help me to keep my eyes on you and not be so occupied with finding food or following the herd.  Restore my souls today as you shepherd me.  Thank you.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. ¹² The hired hand is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep. So when he sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away. Then the wolf attacks the flock and scatters it.¹³ The man runs away because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.  ¹⁴ “I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—“.  John 10:11-14

We are looking at the I-am statements by Jesus that the gospel of John records.  This week we will reflect on Jesus, the good shepherd.  It reminds me of an encounter found in Matthew 19.  A young man comes to Jesus asking what he has to do to get eternal life.  Jesus sidesteps the complement and responds that no one is good but God.  Keep his commandments, Jesus advises.  The man argues that he has but realizes there must be more than just being “good”.  Jesus focuses now not on actions but on the man’s heart.  Jesus challenges the man to sell his goods and give the money to the poor.  The man leaves sad because he is rich.

Often we think of the “good shepherd” as the person who takes care of us and leads us to the “good life.”  Unfortunately Hollywood and culture defines for us what that good life looks like.  It certainly does not include war, job challenges, divorce, illness or financial constraints.  When these challenges enter our life we are tempted to question the goodness of God as our shepherd.  We wail that government should be doing life differently.  We demand that the people at church be perfect and not be forgiven sinners like ourselves.  Our knee-jerk reaction is to cry that we do not have a good shepherd who gives us a good life.

Let us start this week refocusing our thinking.  Only God is good.  We are just passing through this life with God as our shepherd who knows what is good for us.  Hmmmm.  OK.  Let’s start the week with an acrostic on the word “shepherd.”  When we think of God as our shepherd, what do we think of?  S is for _____, H is for _____, E is for _____, P is for ______, H could also be for _____,  E could also be for _____, R is for _____, and D is for _____.  Blessings as he leads you to green pastures and still waters this week.

First Reading: Deuteronomy 18:15-20

[Moses said:] ¹⁵The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you shall heed such a prophet. ¹⁶This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said: “If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.” ¹⁷Then the Lord replied to me: “They are right in what they have said. ¹⁸I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people; I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet, who shall speak to them everything that I command. ¹⁹Anyone who does not heed the words that the prophet shall speak in my name, I myself will hold accountable. ²⁰But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods, or who presumes to speak in my name a word that I have not commanded the prophet to speak—that prophet shall die.”

Psalm: Psalm 111

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (Ps. 111:10)

 ¹Hallelujah! I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart,
  in the assembly of the upright, in the congregation.
 ²Great are your works, O Lord,
  pondered by all who delight in them.
 ³Majesty and splendor mark your deeds,
  and your righteousness endures forever.
 ⁴You cause your wonders to be remembered;
  you are gracious and full of compassion. 
 ⁵You give food to those who fear you,
  remembering forever your covenant.
 ⁶You have shown your people the power of your works
  in giving them the lands of the nations.
 ⁷The works of your hands are faithfulness and justice;
  all of your precepts are sure.
 ⁸They stand fast forever and ever,
  because they are done in truth and equity. 
 ⁹You sent redemption to your people and commanded your covenant forever;
  holy and awesome is your name.
 ¹⁰The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;
  all who practice this have a good understanding. God’s praise endures forever. 

Second Reading: 1 Corinthians 8:1-13

¹Now concerning food sacrificed to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. ²Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge; ³but anyone who loves God is known by him.
 ⁴Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “no idol in the world really exists,” and that “there is no God but one.” ⁵Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as in fact there are many gods and many lords—⁶yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
 ⁷It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge. Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. ⁸“Food will not bring us close to God.” We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do. ⁹But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. ¹⁰For if others see you, who possess knowledge, eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols? ¹¹So by your knowledge those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed. ¹²But when you thus sin against members of your family, and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ. ¹³Therefore, if food is a cause of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

Gospel: Mark 1:21-28

²¹[Jesus and his disciples] went to Capernaum; and when the sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught.²²They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes. ²³Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, ²⁴and he cried out, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God.” ²⁵But Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Be silent, and come out of him!” ²⁶And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him. ²⁷They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority! He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.” ²⁸At once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

CHILDREN’S SERMON:  “The Emperor’s New Clothes” by Hans Christian Anderson is a delightful story of an emperor, a king, who is duped by two tailors who claim they can make him beautiful garments that would be invisible for people unfit for their jobs.  The king would be able to tell the wise from the foolish.  The king would not only look handsome but also the clothes would help him tell who was fit for his or her office.  All his officials were afraid to admit they could not see his wonderful new clothes.  But then a small child seeing the king strutting around, cried out, “The king has no clothes.”

The king thought his clothing would tell everyone that he was a king and confirm his right and power to reign.  The child saw the truth.  What do you think gives a ruler authority to rule?

Let us pray.  Lord, may the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be acceptable in your sight, my Rock and my Redeemer.

SERMON

Epiphany is a season of the church when we have “Aha,” moments as we experience the life story of the incarnation of Jesus. An epiphany is a new insight, an “aha” moment, a new understanding about life.

• The first week we were amazed as John the Baptist baptized Jesus in the Jordon and God’s voice from heaven claimed Jesus as his son.  We had seen baby Jesus born in Bethlehem to  Mary and Joseph and knew he was human but now God publicly claims Jesus and we begin to understand Jesus as the God-man.  The Holy Spirit descends like a dove.  We stand with our mouths hanging open.  God does not just sit somewhere in space watching us but comes to us as trinity and we begin to understand what God is like.  AHA!
• Week 2 we were amazed that God seeks us to follow him just as we are with all our doubts, scars, and limitations.  We do not choose him as our candidate, he chooses us as his disciples.  AHA!  
• Today we might agree with the crowds, “What is this?  A new teaching — with authority!” AHA!  

Authority is the underlying theme of today’s text.  Jesus is in the synagogue teaching.  Internet explanations of authority define authority as a person’s “right” and “power” to do something.  In 2024 Americans will go to the polls to elect a President who represents for many the top authority in the United States.  Our votes will give someone the right and the power to speak for us.  We also recognize the Supreme Court and the Congress but we look to our Presidents as a kind of leader.  Similarly the Jews looked to Jerusalem as their authority, possibly the  leaders in the Temple since they no longer had kings and lived under the presence and power of Rome.  So our text first compares Jesus with the Scribes.

Author or Copier

Our text today comes down through the ages, before the invention of the printing press.  The Scribes were the men dedicated to copying the Scriptures by hand on to parchments or scrolls that were read in the temple or church.  Scribes were the men who copied the Law and Pharisees were the men who taught the law.  The people are amazed that Jesus “taught with authority, not like the Scribes.”  So what is the difference?

There is a difference between the author of the book and the publisher of the book.  The author has authority because the author knows the intent of the writing and the direction it is going and knows the pre-story and the epilogue.  The scribe only knows what is written.  The scribe might be familiar with what came before and might be able to guess what is about to happen but the author knows where the story is going.

So we might ask ourselves today if we really know the author of the story who can explain his intent and application to our lives or do we just read to see what was written.  I love to do some sort of program that tells me what chapter I should read each day so that at the end of the year I will have read through the Bible.  I love to tick the box that shows I read the assignment for the day. But, I must admit that at times my mind is reading on “cruise control mode”, not seeking to understand how the written words apply to my life today but just reading to tick the box.   In the same way, I might also ask if we tend to just read familiar passages of Scripture that feel good or do I plow through and ponder some of the more difficult passages like in the Old Testament.  Jesus speaking as the “living Word,” “the author,” speaks with authority through Scripture to us today and speaks to the challenges we are facing.  He is not copying what someone else wrote.  He is the author.

Perhaps I might make one more clarification.  One of the big differences between Christians and Muslims who both claim to believe in the Old Testament is that Muslims believe the actual words are inspired as written in Arabic.  The words themselves, spoken by God, are holy.  Other translations into other languages are not inspired.  The Quran is not allowed to touch the floor for it is a holy book.  Christians use the word “inspiration.” We too believe God spoke through men to all people but those words of the Bible were meant  to be understood by all people in all languages. The Bible is not just a history book or a science book.  God is telling us a story and talking to us. The Holy Spirit still speaks today through different translations to peoples’ hearts. The text challenges us to be alert when we are reading Scripture  because we are meeting with God and when we are sloppy and just reading words, we are missing the message and the messenger.   

Authority over Evil

“He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.”

“Just then,” how like Evil to show up right when Jesus is making an important point and the people are impressed. “Have you come to destroy us?” Asks the man with the unclean spirit.  Doesn’t that sound similar to the snake in the Garden of Eden when he plants doubt in Eve-surely you won’t die if you eat the fruit.  Evil confronts Jesus in front of the people and claims that the Law was given to destroy people.  It is sort of like the claim that to believe is to not be strong and to need a crutch or to believe is to commit to a life without fun.  The Evil One would always like us to think that submitting to the authority of Scripture is compromising our personhood and  our future.  That sly father of lies adds just enough truth to make us think he knows what he is talking about.  The unclean spirit clearly identifies Jesus as “the Holy One of God.”  In the Garden the serpent added that eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil would make Eve wise.  That was true but that did not change the lie that she surely would not die.

True authority does not mix good and evil.  God does not sugar coat truth for us.  We may not understand the depth of the truth we are reading but God does not play games with us.  Jesus turns to the man with the unclean spirit and commands it to be silent.  The spirit must obey and must exit the man.  AHA!!!  We are not locked in a battle to see if good will triumph over evil as  if they are two equal powers battling for reality.  This scene shows that God is all powerful and can command Evil and Evil must obey.  The spirit screams and the man convulses but the evil spirit must obey, be quiet and leave.

Perhaps today you are standing at the parting of two paths in the woods and both seem equally appealing.  Like in our story, the tailors may be offering you clothing that will make you wise and knowledgeable, but the truth is as the child could see, it is a lie.  We are naked if we are not clothed in God’s power for he commands Evil.

 ²⁷They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, “What is this? A new teaching—with authority!

Authority is having the right and the power.  God has the right of the author, the creator and maker of our lives, to speak into our reality.  God does not sit out in space seeing which ending to the book we will choose.  He does not want to relate to us only because we are good enough to come up to him.  He came down to us and speaks.  He does not just write a letter that is copied and passed around.  He speaks truth through his letters to us.  He does not wear invisible clothes so he can see if we are fit for his kingdom.  He is a God who created us and wants to relate to us, even on days when we feel the job we face is too big for us.  AHA.

God has the power all the time and Evil can only go so far in our lives.  We may feel like Evil is winning but the truth is that God is more powerful than Evil.  He need only say, “be silent.”  AHA.

Jesus taught with authority, not like the Scribes, but like the author of life.  Jesus, the Holy One of God, told the unclean spirit to be silent.  That’s power and it’s power that cares about us.  Thank you, Lord.

Let the people of God say, “Amen!”

0The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom;

    all who follow his precepts have good understanding.

    To him belongs eternal praise.

Tomorrow our psalm for the day will be Psalm 111 and we will focus on the authority of Jesus.  When he spoke, people were amazed.  He did not speak like their leaders and scribes.  He had authority over unclean spirits.  This was a true epiphany moment for the people and for us. 

 Authority comes from the same word as author. The author of the book has more authority, understanding about the characters in the book, in the story, than the publisher.  Psalm 111 speaks of God, the creator, the author of our lives.  He has true authority and we can look to him today.  

The first link is a cute children’s expression of this psalm focus verse. The second puts verses 2-10 to music.  Enjoy as you face the challenges today.  You can always turn to the author of your life!  That is grace!

Proverbs 1:20-22. 

²⁰ Out in the open wisdom calls aloud,
    she raises her voice in the public square;

²¹ on top of the wall she cries out,
    at the city gate she makes her speech.  

Many of us were raised on the Biblical account of Solomon, son of David, becoming king of Israel.  Solomon goes to the Temple to pray.  God offers him anything he would like.  He asks for wisdom to rule God’s people. God affirms that request and adds long life and riches. Solomon started right, recognizing his need for wisdom.

This week we have looked at Jesus’ claim that he is the gate for the sheep.  Proverbs personifies Wisdom as a person in the city of our lives.  It is at the “gate” that she makes a speech and talks to us.  If Jesus is the gate then it is in our relationship with him, with God, that we not only enter in and thus change our lives in a legal transaction that controls Evil’s access to us and protects us, even when we make bad choices, but it is in that relationship that we begin to hear Wisdom speaking into our lives.

Today we will face many decisions.  Some of those decisions are small like whether to eat that piece of cake, and some are big as we face the challenges of life.  It is a comfort to know that as we listen, Wisdom is seeking to speak to us.  We are not alone as we  navigate life and the Spirit that walks with us knows the best way through the tangles.  Thank you, Lord.

Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.  John 10:7-9

This week we have been looking at John 10:7-9 where JEsus tells the Pharisees that he is the gate for the sheep and pondering s  of gates in the Bible.  Gates are places where we go in and out.  Gates were places of legal transactions like Boaz marrying Ruth.  Gates are places that keep the bad guys out and protect the good guys.  We looked at Sampson moving the gates of Gaza when he was caught compromised and took up the gates and repositioned them facing Hebron – God.  Today let’s look at that favorite Psalm 100 written by King David.  It talks about entering the gates.  I am asking myself today how I am entering the gates of my salvation – all discombobulated from jet lag, grumping about figuring what it means to be a widow, or am I entering the gates with thanksgiving for my many friends and his presence with me as I navigate this phase of life?

Psalm 100

¹ Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

²  Worship the Lord with gladness;
    come before him with joyful songs.

³ Know that the Lord is God.
    It is he who made us, and we are his^[a];
    we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

⁴ Enter his gates with thanksgiving
    and his courts with praise;
    give thanks to him and praise his name.

⁵ For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
    his faithfulness continues through all generations.

A brother wronged is more unyielding than a fortified city;
    disputes are like the barred gates of a citadel. (Proverbs 18:19)

16 One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her. ² The people of Gaza were told, “Samson is here!” So they surrounded the place and lay in wait for him all night at the city gate. They made no move during the night, saying, “At dawn we’ll kill him.”

³ But Samson lay there only until the middle of the night. Then he got up and took hold of the doors of the city gate, together with the two posts, and tore them loose, bar and all. He lifted them to his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that faces Hebron.   (Judges 16:1-3”)

A phrase that has become common in English now is “gated community.”  It is a group of homes that is protected by a gate that must be passed to enter and visit someone .  A ”gate” can imply entrance and exit ability.  So. when Jesus says he is the “gate for the sheep,” we often think of the entrance into a relationship with God and he leads us out daily. Yesterday we looked at “the gate” as a place of legal transactions as with Ruth for whom Boaz negotiated a marriage with at the city gate of Bethlehem.  When we enter into relationship with God, we no longer belong to Evil and cannot be possessed by it. 

A gate also protects that within from the evil that is seeking to ruin it.  I have often wondered about a little scenario found in Judges involving the life of Sampson.  We usually think of him in relationship to Delila but there is also a little story of him staying one night with a prostitute in the city of Gaza.  The men gather at the gate to kill him.  In the middle of the night, he gets up, and with his strength tears out the gate and posts, carries them to the top of a hill and faces them towards Hebron, the burial place of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob.  End of story.  There must be a lesson in the scene worth pondering for a moment.

We do not particularly support prostitution but even as Sampson, the hero whom we might see as being involved with sin, so are we as Christians even after confessing faith, still sinners.  Perhaps it is not prostitution but we gossip, say snarky remarks, and do that which we deeply regret later.  One way of dealing with these questionable events inn our life is to question our salvation, repent, and “recommit” our lives to God. Sampson offers another model.  Even as saved sinners becoming sanctified, growing in our faith are still prone to sin, God does not abandon us but still protects us and redirects us so that we reposition that gate in our lives towards Hebron, towards God.

The sheepherders we worked with in Kenya, had sheepfolds to protect the sheep but those enclosures were thorn bushes that could move with the nomads and so the “gate” also moved with the sheep.  The door always pointed to the rising sun.  Our faith is a declaration of identity but it is also a journey of growing and learning about our shepherd.  Jesus, our gate, travels with us and when we take a wrong turn, he helps us reposition ourselves so we are facing toward him.  I find that comforting. 

Maybe today, you need to make some adjustments as you grow with him.  He’s protecting you from the enemy that would destroy you.  Blessings.   

⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.  John 10:7-9

Then the elders and all the people at the gate said, “We are witnesses. May the Lord make the woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, who together built up the family of Israel. May have standing in Ephrathah and be famous in Bethlehem.  Ruth 4:11

As I ponder Jesus’ statement that he is the “gate for the sheep,” I thought of ways that gates represented different aspects of life in the Bible that might be our first association with the word “gate.”  I thought of the Old Testament story of Ruth.  She was a foreigner, not a Jew, but married the son of Naomi whose family fled to Moab during a famine in Bethlehem.  Ruth’s husband died and she eventually returned to Bethlehem with Naomi to find “the new normal” as a widow, a foreigner, and poor.  She starts gathering fallen grain in the field of Boaz who actually is a relative of her family who culturally could protect her. 

This short book ends with Boaz going to the city “gate” to negotiate a marriage with Ruth and to make the relationship legal.  Ruth, a foreigner, a widow, and poor becomes the grandmother of King David.  Wow. Redemption!  Gates were places of legal transactions is the Bible that resulted in life changing agreements that impacted history.  Jesus says he is the “gate.”  He is the place where we make decisions that change the direction of our lives!  He is not just a door we walk through – what first comes to our minds when we think of “gates” but going through Jesus as a gate to faith, a legal transaction occurs that affects our eternity.  Pretty spiff, I think.  Blessings as you ponder the “gates” in your life.

⁷ Therefore Jesus said again, “Very truly I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who have come before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep have not listened to them. ⁹ I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved. They will come in and go out, and find pasture.  John 10:7-9

In Chapter 10 of the gospel of John, he gives a third “I am” statement of Jesus.  Jesus is again responding to the Pharisees.  He gives them the example of a sheep pen.  The real shepherd goes in the gate or door of the holding pen and calls his sheep by name.  We might give the example of someone coming to our house.  If he climbs in the window like a thief, the dog inside will bark and alert the people inside.  But if the husband comes home at night, the dog knows him, wags his tail, gives a royal welcome and will obey.  Other animals are just like our pets. They recognize their master or leader.  They do not follow strangers who approach with unknown intent.  The Pharisees don’t get it, though.  Jesus turns to them and says, “I am that gate to faith.”

So what does that mean to us?  I think it means that the path to approaching and understanding the unseen God who created our existence is found in the incarnation.  Many religions believe in various ways to approach the unseen God-being or force that is acknowledged to be beyond our comprehension.  Many faiths focus on becoming good enough to approach that being.  Christianity believes God came to us in the life of Jesus who took on humanity and through his life demonstrated the character of God.  Other philosophies are like thieves that lead us astray in their attempt belief systems that seem so logical and perhaps do-able.  Jesus does not ask us to do but to believe.  Jesus is the only true gate for understanding God.

So let us again work with an acrostic of the word “gate.”  G is for ….., A is for ….., T is for ….., and E is for ……. I might say, Jesus is Good, Available, Touchable, and Essential.  What would you say?  Blessings as you ponder.